Jews of the world, unite!

Sam Bahour
4 min readDec 4, 2022

This is the moment when the Jewish tradition of social justice can shine brightly.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (center) and Abraham Joshua Heschel (2nd from front right), march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, March 21, 1965 (Source: BlackPast)

A truly opportune moment is staring Jewish communities around the world straight in the eye. Israel’s recent election results are challenging anyone who has blindly supported Israel. That blind support is about to be challenged like never before. Either Jewish communities confirm their values at this moment or risk losing their connection to true Tikkun Olam (Hebrew for ‘repair the world). Acting for Palestinian emancipation from Israeli military occupation must be the centerpiece of this effort.

As Benjamin Netanyahu attempts to assemble the next government, his coalition partners are cause for serious concern; they are fascists, even by many Israelis’ definition. Blind support of Israel has now caught up with Jewish communities everywhere. They must decide — to remain in total support of Israel even as these outright racist elements take control of significant ministries or stand up and finally save Israel from itself by reorientating the conversation to the core existential threat that Israel is facing, its oppression of Palestinians.

I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would point to Abe Foxman, the past Anti-Defamation League leader and one of American Jewry’s leading mainstream leaders for decades, as a guiding light, but he has become just that. Mr…

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